Wine choosing and pairing can be a tedious and overwhelming task. It can also be intimidating if you don’t know a lot about them.
At some point, our society entered into a tacit agreement that knowing your wines elevates you into a higher class of refinement and taste. And if you don’t know your wines, you’re not part of the club. It was also around that same time that people agreed to get really serious about golf.
I’m not knocking golf or wine, I’m simply suggesting that they’re not a social grading system. IQ and aptitude tests would better serve that purpose. However, I do realize what a lame work outing that would make. And so wine and golf do seem to be a more palatable test when looked upon in that regard.
As a professional chef it is expected that I have a fine knowledge of wine. To be honest with you, I struggled with that subject for years – not being a big fan of wine myself – I found it a challenge to know the perfect wine for the perfect occasion. And it was a little disheartening to see the disappointment in my customers faces when mention of their favorite wine pairing elicited little response from me. I simply did not “speak wine”. That is, until I had a wine talk with one of my favorite customers.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2012.